What You See When You Do Not Have A Camera

  There are many reasons for not capturing an image on a camera; one is in a moving vehicle, the timing is not right, the shot would be in bad taste, or you simply do not have a camera with you. I have many images described in my journals and several that are implanted in my mind. Lucky for me that I can close my eyes and envision either the scenery or the living beings that I have viewed. I will omit the death and carnage from accidents, as I have been on many mountain roads and highways that have claimed lives. I will also leave out the hundreds of examples of extreme poverty. Here are just a few of the many sights that I have been lucky enough to witness.

  Think if you will what would come to mind if you saw a woman breast feeding a human baby on one breast and a piglet on the other. This was a photo that would have been in bad taste, if I would have whipped out the camera. In Papua New Guinea I went through a village where I saw such a woman; I guessed that the mother pig died and that keeping this piglet alive may feed the family for years (providing generations of offspring).

  In Alabama there was an old black man sitting in a rocking chair on a porch who was wearing a large brim hat and smoking a pipe; farmland surrounded the tiny house...that was an awesome vision.

  When I was in southern Egypt there was a poor donkey with 3 large men riding on it's back. These guys were all plump; one was right over the animals rear, one in the middle, and one up by the neck; they had to weigh about 200 kilo's in total...."poor donkey"
  I was in the south of China walking around by the sea taking photo's; many people were attending to her/his fishing boat. I always seem to wander off the beaten track which generally gives one a better idea of how the locals are doing. I noticed a man repairing his fishing net with his daughter and thought it would be a good photo. I was just focusing the camera when this 9 or 10 year old girl looked up at me; she was so sad (not angry), her face told her story. I could see that she lived a poor life and just by me describing the look on her face now makes me sad.

  I was on a bus in Tanzania and thankfully it was traveling slow through a market area, not slow enough for a photo out of the window though. I always keep my eyes peeled and I saw a young woman walking who was dressed in a beautiful blue wrap with a matching head scarf, she had a bucket balancing on her head. She was pulling a loaded donkey that had the same blue wrap over the mountain of goods that it carried. I took a double look and there on the top of the "donkey mountain"was a small baby (about 6 months) with the same blue outfit on. She/he was tied off with separate ropes; what a sight that was.
   I have many photo's of Angkor Wat in Cambodia but the enormity of the temple stops one from capturing the whole structure in one shot, it is amazing to stand at the front gate and view this wonder of the world.
  Busing from Vientiane to Pakse in Laos one travels along mountain roads where you see many locals in villages. What struck me out the bus window was how the young Laos women in that area were so gorgeous with their facial features but at the same time you could see what a hard life they were leading (heavy manual work, hiking up mountains with buckets of water....). How someone so young can look strikingly beautiful but worn out tired on the same face is amazing; really tells a story.

  Although these people would have been willing models for a photo, I have never taken one. Many of the transsexuals in Thailand are beautiful, on first glance you would never know that the person was born a male. Often a guy will look at him/her and not believe that this creature of beauty is a guy dressed as a woman.
  Many tombs in Egypt do not allow camera's because people cannot be trusted to keep the flash off. Some of the elaborate calligraphy in tombs all around the country are best captured with the naked eye and a description in a journal...just incredibly rewarding to see.
   Canada has some magnificent scenery...from coast to coast to coast. I saw so much of Canada when I either did not have a camera or I was too amateurish to catch a good shot. Beautiful country that we live in, lucky for us Canadians that we all live close to some natural beauty.
  While in Malaysia I headed to the north east to the beach. I am not a sit on the beach kind of person so I planned to climb on the cliffs. I walked past these two old ladies sunbathing on the beach in the morning; when I got back about 6 hours later these two women were still there. The skin on these ladies looked like it came off an alligator, they must have been sun worshiping for 60 years.

   It was the Independence Holiday in Korea and I went for a walk around Seoul. The city is surrounded by mountains so up I went; I approached a blind corner on the road that had a big circular mirror. I saw through the mirror a couple of military guys standing at attention and just before I took that rather neat shot I heard "no,no pictures"...for military reasons I guess.
   On safari in Tanzania I took so many photo's of wildlife, I had terrific luck with a guide who could locate an array of different animals. One shot I wish I could have gotten was a leopard dragging an impala up a tree. If I had an expensive camera I could have zoomed in for a great shot but hey, that would not be what I saw with the naked eye.
  For some reason I did not take any photo's of Dutch people with their family on bikes. It is a great site when the bicycle is the usual family vehicle; the baby usually sits up front behind a windshield.
   I was standing at a busy intersection of a city of north China when I noticed an old man with a wooden cart with handles on the other side of the street. This intersection had 5 lanes in each of the 4 directions, I felt lucky enough to be able to make it across alive myself using the crosswalk. I stood and watched this old guy cross the intersection at a 45 degree angle oblivious to the hundreds of cars that were swerving around him.

  One time I was trying to set up a place to sleep in Texas but the bugs were so terrible that my companion and I decided to pack up the car and move on. It was dusk and we had a bit of visibility; as we came over a dip there was the largest owl that I have seen standing in the middle of the path staring at the lights; not sure what type of owl it was but the height was almost one metre.
   In a small town along the Nile there were 3 young boys in a donkey driven wagon, the oldest boy with the reigns was about 8 years old, the other 2 about 6 and 4. The 3 boys were so cute as I watched them travel along the road; they were so happy with ear to ear grins.

   In many countries I have had the privilege to snorkel (without an underwater camera). Many of the worlds reefs leave a tourist awestruck at the sights under the sea. Though the experience of the underwater is awesome and a long lasting memory that should be caught on camera, it is the children that make the best natural models. Whichever country you go to the children of that area may provide you with the best shot.